


We Will Rise

by weirdbeing



Series: We Will Be Heroes [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2020-10-05 22:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20496092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weirdbeing/pseuds/weirdbeing
Summary: The Avengers won despite what it cost.Thirteen years after the final battle with Thanos, James and Carter Rogers, Morgan Stark, and Nate Barton are starting their senior year, with the other Avengers kids not too far ahead or behind them.When hackers start exposing SHIELD intel, putting lives at risk and showing the kids information on a villain that may be involved with the disappearance of Steve Rogers, they're ready to fight.The world is in the hands of new heroes.And they will rise.





	1. Prologue

The public knew her as Sarah Rogers. She signed her name Sarah Carter Romanoff-Rogers, messy and scrawled in an attempt to get her full name down and fast. Uncle Sam and Uncle Bucky called her Firefly- fire for the hair and fly because she had been obsessed with the Falcon wings when she was little. James, Morgan, and Nate called her Red. Everyone else who knew her personally called her Carter. She knew why she was called different names by different people, the press had gotten ahold of her full name and automatically assumed she went by her first name. And for the first eleven years of her life, she was fine with that.

Then the summer before sixth grade Uncle Sam and Uncle Bucky sat her and James down and started to tell them stories. Stories that they had heard since they were little, about people who were larger than life and defended the people who couldn’t defend themselves at all costs.

But the stories didn’t end the way the twins had always been told that they did.

Mom used to be a KGB agent.

Uncle Bucky had been a brainwashed assassin.

The Avengers fought each other.

Dad fought Tony Stark.

Thor watched his home burn.

Clint Barton killed innocent people after the snap.

“I know this is hard to learn, but you were going to learn it in school. We wanted you to hear it from us because-”

“We’re different,” Carter muttered, “We know.”

And with that Carter stood up and sprinted to her room. Her door slammed behind her and she locked it. Her small body slumped against the wooden door frame as her legs gave out and she sat meekly on the floor. Her arms scrambled to find something-anything- near her on the soft, white carpet of her bedroom. After a moment her hand wrapped around the fabric of a discarded sweatshirt. Carter instantly pulled it to her face, curled in on herself, and screamed.

Her muffled screams died down as her throat started to burn. Carter hugged her sweatshirt to her chest and start to cry. _ She knew nothing about anything. _ Her body shook with sobs until she fell asleep, curled in the fetal position against her door.

Carter woke up early to birds chirping. Looking up from her spot on the floor she once again was hit with the ever-constant fact that she was not normal. Sunlight streamed through bulletproof windows into her baby blue bedroom that had sunflowers painted on the walls. Carter had thought that she had known the truth about the Avengers. She thought she could say, she knew more than others did. _ But she didn’t. _

What did she even know about her parents anymore? She didn't grow up around them. They were either dead or, in her dad's case, as good as. She only grew up with stories that she didn't know the whole truth behind. Carter froze, her hands shaking. What did she know about her namesake? Getting up from the floor on shaking feet, Carter made her way over to her dresser and picked up her phone. Then she did something she probably should have done a long time ago. She searched the name, Peggy Carter.

* * *

James hated school.

People stared at him, all the time. They stared at his sister too, and they stared at Mogan Stark, but the stares had different meanings. He knew they did. Carter, they stared at with suspicion, they saw her as the daughter of the black widow and didn’t know what she was capable of. Morgan, they stared at with either amazement or annoyance, because she was smart and not everyone in their grade liked it. James, they stared at in awe, in approval, in envy, because he “was the next Captain America” and that’s all they really knew him as.

So James hated school. It was September 1st and he was going to have to put up with school for another year. This time with new faces looming over him, staring with that same sense of awe that he didn’t feel he deserved. To make it all worse was the world crumbling truths that he had come to learn and the fact that his twin seemed to be drowning one minute and back on her feet the next. James wanted to know how she did that. He still felt like he was underwater.

At least his homeroom was alphabetical. R and S in one room for ten minutes at the start of the school day. Ten minutes with Carter and Morgan. Ten minutes with people who _understood_.

James made his way to the sixth-grade hall of his school, people staring as he passed. Homeroom was bound to be his favorite part of the day. He only had one class with Morgan and none with Carter, but the class with Morgan was PE. James hated PE, for the same reason he hated the rest of school, and _of course, _ he had to have it first period.

Homeroom passed with the teacher doing nothing but talk, with a few glances at James, Carter, and Morgan. The bell rang and after waving to his sister, who was off to chorus class, he walked beside Morgan.

“Even our homeroom teacher’s staring. Don’t they give them briefings or something to our teachers?” He sighed.

“And what?” Morgan started, “Tell them don’t stare at these kids who have been on the news and magazine covers more than some celebrities? I don’t like it either, James, but it's kinda expected.”

James rolled his eyes.

“But after six years going to school with us, why can’t everyone else just get used to it and stop staring.”

Morgan just shrugged and turned away to go into the girl’s locker room. James continued down the hall a few more paces and went into the boy’s locker room. He changed as fast as he could in the back corner of the room and made his way to the gym.

“Hey Rogers, that was fast! You must have gotten your dad’s speed genes!”

The teacher was called Coach Greens. A man who yelled everything he said and picked favorites not so subtly.

“It’s Romanoff-Rogers,” James corrected quietly.

“That’s fair, but it’s a bit of a mouth full! You care if I just call you Rogers!?”

People were starting to enter the gym at this point, but James was more than a little annoyed and fed up.

“Yes.” He said, “Yes I care. My name is James Romanoff-Rogers if my last name’s to long call me by my first name it’s not hard.”

Coach Greens smiled and let out a barking laugh, while James classmates looked at each other in confusion or surprise.

“Alright, James,” Coach Greens laughed, “That works! Stark, you got a preference like that!?”

Morgan shook her head as people turned to her.

“I’m fine with Stark.” She said.

“Alright then, two laps for warm-up! Go!”

James took off running with the rest of his class, a small smile on his face. The rest of the school day wasn’t all that bad. For once people were staring at him for something he did, not because of something he didn’t even want to become.

Later that night he sat on the couch next to his sister with some tv show playing that they weren’t paying any attention to.

“Morgan told me what happened in gym,” Carter said.

James smiled, “Yeah, it was awesome. People stared for something _ I _ did.”

“That’s good,” Carter said quietly.

She was quiet, James noted.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“How?”

Carter looked at him.

“What do you mean ‘how?’”

“You freaked out when we first learned… _ everything_, but now you’re fine.”

Carter let out a humorless laugh.

“I’m not really, I’m kinda a mess, but you know what I did?”

“What?”

“I looked up Peggy Carter because I realized I know almost nothing about her except that she founded SHIELD.” Carter started, “And I wanted to know what people thought of when they heard my name, but then I thought that when the people who know me as Carter hear that name, they think of me. I’ve made this name my own. Besides, I could have it worse than the name crisis. Our teachers and principal want Morgan to switch schools and skip grades.”

James nodded, Morgan had told him about that around a week ago.

“I know that.”

“But have you talked to Nate?”

“No,” James started, confused, “I haven’t.”

Carter sighed.

“He’s got like no friends. People formed little groups over the summer and almost everything about his summer is classified to keep identities secret. And he said he did some searching about what his dad did after that snap, Nate can’t look him in the eyes anymore.”

“I guess we could have it worse,” James muttered.

“No,” Carter said, snapping to attention, “I said I could have it worse. I know you hate school, I know you’d drop out if you could. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people to want you to be something you don’t want to be. I can’t even handle people saying my voice is fake, I’m just being a coward dropping chorus.”

James’s face fell, “You can’t drop chorus, you were so excited!”

Carter shook her head, “I already did. It’s fine. It’s not a big deal. They can call whatever they want it doesn’t bother me as long as they don’t call me fake.” She laughed slightly, “Actually, let’s just trade.”

“Trade?” James questioned.

“I’m fine with people saying I’m like mom, but they never say that. They call me the daughter of Black Widow, to me that’s calling me fake. I told you I heard what happened in gym. You stood up to an authority by twisting his words and manipulating the way people saw you to get what you want. That sounds like mom.”

James breathed out a laugh. He was like his mom? He liked that.

“So,” He said, “You’re Captain America and I’m Black Widow.”

“Exactly!” Carter quipped.

“The next Black Widow, I like the sound of that.”

“We’re different, we can’t help that. Some of it may as well be from our own choices.”

James smiled at his sister. He had no idea what would happen now that their world had been torn apart, but he wasn’t so worried about it anymore.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

Nate let out a sigh of relief as he stepped out of the scorching afternoon sun and into the air-conditioned gym. It was August and a ninety-degree afternoon in Oklahoma. Nate walked slowly down a hallway that led to the locker rooms. It was filled with teenagers wearing sweat-soaked tee shirts and tank tops that all had the SHIELD emblem on the chest. SHIELD had taken over the gym to use for a training program for high schoolers. Kids who want to be a part of the agency go through a month of extreme training and briefings to make sure it’s something they want to do. It also allowed SHIELD to learn who they could trust. After all, their agents weren't immortal.

No one knew that more than Nate and the other children of the Avengers.

" Hey, Nate, wait up!"

Nate turned at the familiar voice of one of his best friends. Carter Romanoff-Rogers ran over, looking up at him through blue eyes and smiling despite her sunburnt cheeks. He had known her since they were three, so it was an odd thing to have to pretend not to know her when he was at school and pretend he had just met her at the beginning of the month around the other trainees.

“Hey, Red,” he called to her, “ You waiting for James?”

“Yeah, him and Morgan.” She said as she caught up to him, “Our flight’s like an hour after the dismissal assembly thing.”

“Mine’s not until midnight.”

"So what you're gonna get home at two in the morning? Who's picking you up from the airport?" Carter asked.

"My mom, I think," He paused, "It's got to be. My dad's still mad at me for applying for this."

Nate sighed slightly and looked down, but quickly got over his moment of disappointment.

"Also, Red, I don't think you know much about the layout of America if you think a flight from Oklahoma to Missouri will take more than an hour."

Carter snorted, "Shut up. Why are you even flying then?"

"Security reasons, I can't drive from here."

Carter nodded, “Do you know who the speaker is for dismissal ceremonies?”

Nate shook his head, “I’ve heard rumors though."

They stopped when they got to the end of the hall. Carter waved goodbye as Nate walked in the boys' locker room. A clock near the door read 4:32. Twenty-eight minutes until dismissal. Nate sighed sadly. As weird as it was, he didn’t want to go home.

* * *

At five o'clock sharp all of the agents in training stood at attention in needle straight lines. They faced a portable stage that had been put up for assemblies. On the stage, Melinda May, head of SHIELD's training programs, stood. She stood proudly, observing her teenage trainees with pride.

"Trainees!" She yelled, "Congratulations, you've survived the month!" May gave them a proud smile, "You've impressed me. Every single one of you has what it takes to be a SHIELD agent and I hope you continue on the path to becoming one by joining the Academy. This is our third year with this program and I am incredibly proud to say that it has increased our number of recruits by 7%. Now, not all of us have been recruited in the most normal of ways, and the ways we were recruited let us know just what we were really getting into. None of you here truly understand what it is to take on the burden all of our agents carry, so here to talk to you about that is Agent Cassandra Lang of our specialist division."

Nate watched as a twenty-six-year-old Cassie Lang made her way on stage. He hadn't seen her since Christmas, she was on a mission after mission. She had taken on a high ranking position in the specialist division, she fought in a new and improved version of her father's suit. If there was ever a need for a new team of Avengers, Cassie would be one of the first people to join.

Cassie's case was very similar to Lila's. Nate knew that his sister would join the Avengers in a heartbeat. She was the new Hawkeye, after all, no matter how much their father hated it.

Cassie traded places with May to stand in front of the microphone.

"Congratulations, Trainees," She began, "I'm Agent Lang and I joined SHIELD when I was sixteen. It was one year after the war against Thanos ended, and I started training almost immediately after the war was won. There are details of my story that are classified, but what I can tell you is that there is a reason that it is so rare for SHIELD to recruit kids anymore." Cassie laughed sadly, "My first mission ended with more casualties then hostages saved. One of which was a girl barely a month younger than me."

Her stare was full of sorrow and regret, Nate had seen it before on every agent he had ever met.

"You have to understand that when you join SHIELD you are taking on a burden that is easily compared to that of a soldier in the military. That burden is also placed upon your families who have to wait with very little information for you to come home. If you come from a military or SHIELD family then you have an idea of what they will go through, but you have to consider what kind of a burden that you are placing upon yourself. Thank you for your time trainees, and please go be kids for the rest of the summer."

Nate was on a plane hours later, heading home to a mother who already had to deal with not knowing if her daughter was safe and a father who hated that Nate and Lila wanted to follow the path they did. Nate felt guilty for doing this to his mother, but he needed to be a SHIELD agent. It was all he ever wanted to do. As for his father, Nate already didn't speak to him so he didn't see why it mattered.

* * *

Nate noticed the staring pretty quickly. It was a Wednesday, the third week of senior year. He got on the bus and eyes followed his every move. This had never happened before. He had heard James's rants about it, but it had never been something he experienced first hand. He should never experience first hand.

Why were they staring?

Some of his classmates were looking not so subtly from him to their friends. Out of the corner of his eye, Nate saw one person take a photo of him. 

Then he heard someone whisper.

"He looks confused. Is he the right Barton?"

"Yeah, Nathaniel Pietro Barton, son of Clint Barton."

Nate's eyes widened and he pulled out his phone. He angled his phone away from the prying eyes of his peers and opened his news app. He froze when he read the first headline, "SHIELD Secrets Released To Public."

"Dammit," Nate whispered.

He scrolled to the next story. "The Secrets of Hawkeye." He clicked on it and started to skim the article.

"The original Hawkeye was an assassin that was recruited to be a part of the Avengers when they were formed. That Hawkeye was named Clint Barton who now lives on a farm with his wife Laura and their youngest son Nathaniel..." "He has a kill count in the thousands. Half of which are from killing innocent civilians after the snap..." "The title of Hawkeye has since been passed down to Clint's daughter Lila Barton."

Nate stopped at his sister's name.

"No," he muttered, he was vaguely aware of the bus coming to a stop, "No this can be happening."

Lila was in the field. Her mission was supposed to last a week and she had only been there three days. Her cover was blown and she was left without any backup. This couldn't be fucking happening.

People got off the bus, some taking photos as they walked past him. When everyone had gotten off the bus Nate followed, scrolling through his contact list.

He tried his mom first. No answer. He marched into the lobby of his school and pushed past anyone who called out to him. Next, he tried his dad. No answer.

Wanda Maximoff. No answer.

Maria Hill. No answer

Shit.

As he moved through the halls Nate tried to call every adult that had any connection to SHIELD that he had in his phone. No one answered. He should have expected this. They must have dumped their phones after information was released. That was the protocol for high ranking agents.

Nate knew that without information it wasn't safe to leave the building. It was unlikely that some enemy of SHIELD would try to attack him at his public high school. If any of his classmates tried to attack him, they would be made aware pretty quickly that Nate was more than capable of holding his own in combat.

As soon as Nate walked into his homeroom people stared and started to yell out questions. Nate ignored them. Instead of answering he rushed over to the back corner of the classroom and continued looking through his contact list. Adults couldn’t be reached, but maybe kids could. He went to “S” in his phone and found the name of one kid who wouldn’t be caught without some form of tech on her. Morgan Stark. He pressed the call button and tapped his heel on the ground to keep from pacing. Nate noticed that the room had fallen silent and his classmates, along with the teacher, were staring intently at him. One ring, two rings, three, four. No answer.

“No no no!” Nate yelled, “Dammit, Morgan, pick up our fucking phone!”

That was when the questions started again.

“Dude, are you calling Morgan Stark? Like the daughter of Iron Man?”

“Which other Avengers’ kids do you know?”

“Can I have Morgan’s number?”

And then there was the teacher.

“Language, Mr. Barton,”

Nate ignored them all and tried James. One ring, two rings-

“Nate, hey,”

The phone almost fell from Nate’s hand in shock.

“That’s all you have to say!” He yelled.

“What else-”

“How about telling me what the fuck is going on!”

“Wait, no one told you!” James said in shock.

“No one told me what, James?!"

"I'm not allowed to say anything over the phone." There was a pause, "I'm going to give the phone to my uncle Bucky."

Nate heard the phone being passed.

"Nate?"

"What the fuck is going on?" Nate stated.

"We're sending someone to pick you up. They already got your mom and she packed a bag for you so they'll be there in about fifteen minutes." Bucky told him.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I can't tell you much over the phone. Are you okay with bunking with James until we figure this out? Morgan's also staying."

"That's fine." Nate answered through gritted teeth, "Is my sister out of the field?"

Some of his classmates reacted to that. Eyes grew wide and gasps were indiscreetly muffled.

"Yes, a quinjet was sent for an emergency extraction."

Nate let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay, and I’ve got ten minutes?”

“About ten, yeah,”

“Thanks, bye.”

“Bye, Na-”

Nate hung up and brought a hand to his face. A deep breath escaped him as he finally brought himself to look at his classmates. Twenty-seven faces stared up at him with wide eyes and gaping jaws.

“What?” He asked.

To Nate’s surprise no one yelled anything out, instead, one kid raised his hand. Chase Karr, someone Nate had been friends with in elementary school and acquaintances with some middle school.

“Yeah,” Nate said.

Chase hesitated slightly, “Is-um-is all the stuff about your dad true?”

Nate stared at him and Chase shifted under his gaze.

“What stuff?”

“Is his-uh,” Chase hesitated again, “His kill count after the snap.”

Nate’s throat went dry.

“I-um,”

The class looked at him expectantly. Not even the teacher spoke a word.

“Yes.” Nate said finally, “I learned about it when I was eleven. I hate him for it.” Nate turned to the teacher, "I'm leaving if you've got a problem with that, take it up with Bucky Barnes."

With that, Nate walked out of the classroom. He headed back down the halls and out the front doors. Slumping down on a bench, Nate waited in silence for the SHIELD car to come and get him.

It came fairly quickly. A black SUV with tinted windows pulled up. The back window rolled down and Nate’s mom waved for him.

“Nate,” she called.

He ran over to the car and opened the back door to sit next to his mom. Laura Barton stared with relief in her eyes and leaned over to hug him tightly.

"You're okay. You're okay. Thank god you're okay." She whispered.

"I talked to James and Bucky," James told his mom, "They sent a quinjet to Lila's position for an emergency extraction. She's gonna be okay."

His mom looked ready to cry at that.

"I'll have to thank Bucky when we get there. Your dad was picked up by someone else. He's headed to the new triskelion."

"Mom," Nate started, "Do you know what's going on?"

His mom sighed heavily, "SHIELD apparently released all information and data it has to the public."

Nate's eyes grew wide. There was no way in hell that was true.

"They wouldn't do that."

"Well, they did."

They spent the rest of the ride in silence. They got to the airport quickly, there a quinjet was waiting for them. They boarded and after they took off Nate started to go through the bag his mom packed. A few sets of clothes, his work boots, and a small framed photo of him and his siblings. Cooper was in California, he worked as a Chemistry teacher and Baseball coach at a high school. Was he okay? Did someone think to go get him and take him to safety?

“Excuse me,”

Nate turned, an agent was standing next to him.

“We need to confiscate your phone and any other electronics you have.”

Nate pulled out his phone.

“I thought you didn’t do this with kids.” He told the agent.

“This is different.”

Then how did my call to James go through?”

The agent shrugged, “I’m not the guy to ask.”

“Is my brother safe?” Nate asked.

“All SHIELD families have been checked in on and all Avengers kids are being taken to safe locations.” The agent shrugged again, “Take that as you will. We land in twenty.”

“We’re that close to New York?”

“We’re going max speed on a quinjet so yeah.”

They actually landed in eighteen minutes. Then it was another car for an hour until they finally reached a house surrounded by high cinderblock walls topped in razor wire. The car pulled up to titanium gates and was instantly swarmed with flashing lights.

Reporters.

The gate opened and Nate could see SHIELD agents dress in bulletproof uniforms keep the reporters away. The car entered the driveway. Nate and his mother ran up to the front door and were let into a house of chaos. People were yelling and screaming, curses so creative Nate hadn’t even heard the twins use we cried out. Bucky was the first to notice Nate and his mother.

“Laura, Nate, thank god you’re safe.”

“Thank you, Bucky,” Laura said, “You have no idea how much of a relief it was to know Lila’s our of the field.”

“You had every right to know.” Bucky turned to Nate, “All of the kids are upstairs.”

“Nate!”

Nate turned to the voice. One of his best friends stood at the edge of the stairs, her hair and eyes as dark as her late father’s. Nate ran over to her.

“Morgan,” Nate called, “What’s going on.”

Morgan stared at him.

“You _still_ don’t know?”

Nate almost screamed, “Know _what_, Morgan?!”

Morgan’s face turned dark, “SHIELD was hacked. Everything out there.”

At that moment Nate no longer wanted to know the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's the next chapter, I hope you like it. I will try to update more often/come up with an updating schedule. What other characters do you want chapters about? Please comment it really does help and encourages me to continue this fic.


	3. Chapter 3

On the morning of what was supposed to be another boring day of senior year, Carter had woken up to her twin brother pounding on her bedroom door yelling at her to "get downstairs because SHIELD broke." 

Within a matter of hours, SHIELD agents were swarming her house, all of her devices had been confiscated by her uncles, though luckily not before Nate had called James for help, and her fellow children of the Avengers showed up for sanctuary.

SHIELD being hacked gave all of her secrets to the world. Her friends names and addresses, her own address, her parent's kill counts, Clint Barton's kill count and identity. She couldn't imagine what, Nate, his siblings, and his mother were going through.

That was how she ended up sitting on the floor of her bedroom with a bunch of kids she had known her whole life, watching the news on a brand new computer. An agent had given it to her already logged in with a burner email. Carter was leaning against her bed, a ten-year-old Henry Lang peered over her shoulder at the screen which was playing a news story about SHIELD. James was pacing her room and Morgan had left a few minutes ago to locate food for all of them.

The news anchor's voice rang out from the computer, "SHIELD's formally confidential records were released at 4:37 am this morning. SHIELD officials have stated that all the information was released on their own accord, but their reasons for doing so remain up to speculation. There will be a press conference tomorrow at ten a.m.-"

The news story was cut off by Morgan running into the room.

"Guess who's here?" She said.

"Aren't many options, Morgan." A familiar voice spoke from Carter's doorway.

"Nate!" Henry yelled, before jumping up and tackling Nate in a hug.

"Hey, Henry," Nate said, "Hey, guys,"

"Nate you're okay." James smiled.

Carter stared at her friend from her seat on the floor. Nate caught her eyes and smiled, letting go of Henry he walked over to sit beside her.

"What news story are we watching, Red?" He asked, leaning over Carter's shoulder to see the computer screen.

Carter sighed, "'SHIELD Secrets Revealed'"

James snorted and started pacing again, "Wonder how long until there are conspiracy theories about this whole thing."

"I'm sure there already are." Morgan said, "Although some of them are bound to be right, hackers are the more logical explanation to SHIELD just up and revealing all their secrets."

Carter nodded in agreement and started to scroll through other news clips.

"There's one on Mr. Clint." Henry said, pointing at the screen from his seat on the floor.

There were several, actually. Most had Hawkeye in the title, but the one Henry was pointing to used Clint's name. It wasn't a news clip, instead it was someone's personal channel, and was titled 'Why isn't Clint Barton in Prison?'.

"I'd say let's watch it, but I think there's going to be a lot of cursing that Henry shouldn't hear." Nate said quietly.

"You're probably right," Carter responded, "You okay?"

"Just wonderful."

There was a sharp knock from the doorway. Carter turned to see Sam standing there, his face showing nothing but stress.

"Henry, there's pizza downstairs," Sam started as Henry ran from the room to get food, "And you guys can have your phones back."

"Really?" Morgan asked.

"Well not your phones, new ones with different numbers but you can use your old accounts."

"Uncle Sam, that makes no sense." James stated.

"Some people gave your phone numbers and emails to the press, that's why we had to take your phones, but since your accounts were already public your fine." Sam told them, "And you all have a ton of unanswered messages, calls, and emails. James, you have quite a few from Miles."

Carter watched her brother's face turn red and she bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing. Miles was one of James's best friends and one of the only people who, in the words of her brother himself, 'treated him like any ordinary person'. James was also very insistent that he did not have a crush on him. Call it twin intuition, but Carter thought that was bullshit.

Sam started to hand out the new phones and Carter saw James typing away instantly. When Carter was handed hers she didn't look at it, instead she stared straight at her uncle.

"There's more isn't there?" She said, "You wouldn't have sent Henry downstairs if this was just about phones."

Sam sighed, "I sent Henry downstairs because I know how you get when interviews come up."

Carter dropped her phone onto the floor and clenched her hands into fists.

"You're not serious!" She yelled, looking at Sam and realizing that he was, in fact, serious, "Interviews at a time like this!"

"The press have been going insane. You four will be interviewed tomorrow, while SHIELD officials will give a press conference."

Carter punched her floor.

"Sorry, Firefly," Sam told her, "Don't punch the floor you'll hurt your hand."

Then he left the room, to join the adults talking about who knows what and leaving Carter to her anger.

"An interview! How is a fucking interview going to do us any good!"

"Red," Morgan started, "They aren't that bad, calm down."

"She doesn't just calm down about interviews." Carter heard James mutter.

"I heard that,"

"You were supposed to."

"Hey guys!" A voice chirped, it was Henry smiling in the doorway, "There's food."

"Awesome, let's get food." Morgan said awkwardly, walking from the room after Henry.

Carter forced a smile onto her face and followed her friend out the door.

* * *

Sleep was dumb and Carter decided that it was pointless that night. She couldn't, however, go downstairs because of all the adults were still down there discussing whatever it was that they had been talking about all day. Instead she had gotten a cup of water from the bathroom sink and sat against the hallway wall, scrolling though news stories on her phone.

"Hey," A voice Carter recognized as Nate's, although she couldn't see him in the dark of the hallway, said.

"Hey, couldn't sleep either?"

"Nope,"

Nate sat down next to her. It was silent for a moment, until a thought popped into Carter's head.

"Have you heard from your dad?" Carter asked.

Nate sighed, "No, don't think I will and I don't really care. I just want to hear from Lila."

"I'm sure we'll get news about her soon. Are you really not worried about your dad?"

Nate laughed humorlessly, "He made his bed now he has to lay in it."

"Is he still pissed at you?" Carter stared down at her water, "For applying to the SHIELD training program."

"Oh, he hates me for that. It's right up there with Lila joining the Training Academy instead of a normal college."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

"You're fine." Nate smirked, "It shows you _care_."

"Oh, fuck off, Barton,"

Nate nudged her shoulder with his, "Are you good?"

Carter scoffed, "Hell no. I don't know how I'm gonna get through that interview tomorrow."

"You'll do fine, Red, and you'll have James, Morgan, and me there, so it's not like your alone."

"This is your first interview ever, so that doesn't comfort me a lot." Carter joked.

"How bad can answering questions be? It's not like we're doing a press conference, it's more like a conversation and there's not going to be an audience." Nate insisted.

"It's more than that," She told him, "You can't tell the whole truth, but everyone needs to think that you are telling the whole truth. And whatever personal answers you give people are going to over analyze in order to make it seem like they know you better than you know yourself."

Nate stared at her for a moment before closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall, "Some of those people might."

"No they won't. Sometimes people get so close you think they might know you, but then they go and say something so _stupid_ that you realize the truth. They will never know or understand you because you are so far separated from them." Carter sighed, "It sucks."

"Wonderful explanation, Carter." A familiar voice spoke from the light side of the hallway.

Carter smiled as Nick Fury stepped into her line of vision.

"I didn't know you were here." She said.

"I got here a little while ago for a meeting. I could stop by without talking to my favorite idiot children." He told her, "Are you two the only ones awake?"

"Yeah," Nate answered.

"Well then you will have to pass this along to Morgan and James," Nick said, "But I know you guys must be looking for something to do other than watch the news, so I think you all should do some research."

Carter raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"Research what?" Nate asked, voicing Carter's own thoughts.

"Steve Rogers."

"What?" Carter asked instantly.

Her dad had been MIA since she was four-year-old. As far as she was aware, she and James knew everything regarding his disappearance.

"Research Steve Rogers and what happened thirteen years ago." Nick paused, glancing at his phone, "They've noticed I'm gone, I'll see you all soon."

Nick left Carter and Nate in silence. Carter's mind had gone blank. Something happened to her dad and SHIELD might have known what it was, but didn't tell her.

"Red," Nate started.

"We tell them in the morning." Carter snapped, "I'm gonna try and sleep or I'm going to panic about this."

With that Carter stood up and walked to her room. She stepped around Morgan, who was fast asleep on an air mattress in the middle of Carter's floor, crawled into bed, and curled herself up in her blankets. She wanted to scream, she wanted to yell, but Carter refused and buried herself deeper into her pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... the next chapter will be out sooner I promise

**Author's Note:**

> This thing is a mess, but I have a ton of fun ideas. Tell me if you want a Morgan or Nate POV chapter. :)


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